Under the new proposal, no actions to protect the public would be taken even if radioactivity in drinking water were dozens or hundreds of times higher than Safe Drinking Water Act levels. This would force the public to use contaminated water containing dangerous levels of radioactivity far beyond the current standards

Duke Energy to vacuum toxic deposits in Dan River clean 1 NELSON KEPLEY/News & Record This sign, stapled to a tree at Abreu-Grogan Park in Danville, Va., advises citizens of a Feb. 2 coal ash spill about 20 miles upstream in the Dan River (background). Read...

A fight between DENR and the Southern Environmental Law Center has been going on since last year, when the organization gave notice it intended to sue the company over its coal-ash ponds. That prompted the agency to file its own lawsuits in order to control the outcome of the litigation.

“They could have let us file and we could have worked together but he scrambled to prevent us from bringing our own lawsuit,” said Frank Holleman, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which tried to sue Duke Energy under the Clean Water Act three times, only to be thwarted by DENR. “They did everything they could to hinder our ability to be effective.”

By allowing the Dan River spill to happen and by allowing it to spread further and further over time, Duke and DENR can accomplish several goals. By letting the contamination spread, Duke avoids a costly cleanup, minimizes its liability, and programs the minds of the public that “the drinking water is safe” because the contamination levels have been deemed “acceptable.” The coal ash contaminants in the river and lakes may be ﬁltered to meet “acceptable” drinking water standards, but the river and lakes remain contaminated.